June 2013 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis

This is a discussion on June 2013 : Indian Car Sales Figures & Analysis within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; Don't know why Maruti Ritz hasn't really eaten into i10s share which is doing 8K+ for the last 4-5 months. ...

Don't know why Maruti Ritz hasn't really eaten into i10s share which is doing 8K+ for the last 4-5 months. It's such a wonderful VFM car with amazing city driving capabilities. There's an additional 2K worth accessories deal (20k Consumer Promo on Petrol and 25K on Diesel) going on today. It seems they'll have to give even better deals to sell more.

P.S.: Hope someone can share an insider news if they're going to come up with a better deal on the Ritz? As my fiance is going to book it in a week or two.

Don't know why Maruti Ritz hasn't really eaten into i10s share which is doing 8K+ for the last 4-5 months. It's such a wonderful VFM car with amazing city driving capabilities.

I know some people for whom the rear designing of the Ritz was a deal breaker despite a fantastic engine! The i10 is much more neutral in designing and no such characteristics which can be put in the realms of being a deal breaker. And we all prefer good looking cars, isn't it? Also, Ritz has an oil burner option which makes the major chunk of the sales, where i10 lacks. Hence the customers for both cars are entirely different sets. However, IMO, a more direct competitor for the i10 is the Maruti's premium hatch: the Swift.

Don't know why Maruti Ritz hasn't really eaten into i10s share which is doing 8K+ for the last 4-5 months. It's such a wonderful VFM car with amazing city driving capabilities. There's an additional 2K worth accessories deal (20k Consumer Promo on Petrol and 25K on Diesel) going on today. It seems they'll have to give even better deals to sell more.

For many, the only deal-breaker for Ritz is its rear. If you can live with it, this is the better option compared to i10, IMO - be it ride quality, fuel consumption, highway stability, maintenance costs and frontal looks. If Maruti can come up with a Ritz rear-lift at the earliest instead of going for stupid 'limited edition' sticker jobs for their cars, the better for them. Otherwise, they are losing a lot of numbers to opponents.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saket77

a more direct competitor for the i10 is the Maruti's premium hatch: the Swift.

IMO, the new Swift is a premium hatch, while i10 sits one segment lower - probably in the leagues on WagonR and Beat, and is not at all a premium hatch - whether it is in terms of design or brand value.

Just read on the Businessline website that SIAM is hoping and praying for a stimulus package for auto sector. The sector has not seen this kind of pain even in 2008 financial crisis. In 2008 government was quick in giving excise duty cuts to help industry but this time it's tough to forgo revenues for the government.

Some saving grace could be the fact that UV sales tend to pick up 3-6 months before general elections. This assessment is purely based on anecdotal evidence. UVs like scorpio, bolero, sumo, Innova are a big hit with political parties during elections. These vehicles help ferry the leaders and their workers as they travel to places with good roads and no roads. So general elections and state elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, MP, chattisgarh in 2013-14 could mean slightly better demand for UVs and SUVs.

Looks like Nissan Micra has done well. Almost an increase of 1100 units from the previous month. It has even crossed Sunny for the first time. Could this be due to the recent facelift?

This could be the transfer of Nissan Micra Active to the dealers. The real sales figure would probably be available from next month onwards as new transfer from plant to dealers will happen based on actual sales.

With new agressive pricing, this could be actually true as the active base version is now pegged at 3.5 Lac making it 4.0 Lac on road therefore it better than i10, spark, beat petrol, WagonR etc as it represents a segment up with better specifications (minus the bells and whistles though)

In total, sales of luxury brands from Jaguar Land Rover were at 30,536 units.

Total passenger vehicle sales stood at 42,881 units in June. Commercial vehicle sales stood at 41,577 units during the month.

Which means Tata branded cars and UVs managed sales of a mere 12345 globally (nice number, of which 11804 were in India), while JLR sold 30536 units in the month of June. That's quite a bad position to be in for Tata, as sales of the premium marques outsell the mainstream brand in the ratio of 5:2 overall. With no new products in sight in a stagnant market, and with several competitors in the process of launching one new car after another, Tata is in for some bad times.

They failed to consolidate when they were the number 2 in terms of domestic passenger vehicle sales and had a stranglehold over the economy diesel car and UV segments. Instead they punished Tata customers with consistently poor quality, bad fit and finish, never ending niggles, frequent breakdowns and lousy after sales service. In a market that was rapidly transforming into a highly competitive one, they were digging their own grave. They are just harvesting the fruits of what they had sown earlier.

Which means Tata branded cars and UVs managed sales of a mere 12345 globally (nice number, of which 11804 were in India), while JLR sold 30536 units in the month of June. That's quite a bad position to be in for Tata, as sales of the premium marques outsell the mainstream brand in the ratio of 5:2 overall. With no new products in sight in a stagnant market, and with several competitors in the process of launching one new car after another, Tata is in for some bad times.

I dont think it is fair to compare car sales of the Tata brand and JLR. After all Tata cars are primarily sold in India. They barely have any significant presence outside India. They only have minor presence in South Africa, Italy, Spain and Thailand.

On the other hand, JLR has direct presence in 80 countries, and is exported to pretty much every nation in the world. This includes all the top markets of the world, which are far far bigger in size than the Indian automobile market, like the USA, EU and China.

Great figures and analysis as usual. Just wondering, is there any way to get sales figures on region to region basis? Increasingly, I tend to believe that different regions might behave differently than the overall national trend we get to see here.

For example, I can see the number of Etios, Liva and Ertiga on the rise in Kolkata. Yes, Swift Dzires are increasing by the day -- but lot of them in Kolkata are with yellow number plates (luxury taxis). These "for hire" Dzires are trim version of the usual Dzire. They don't even have body coloured bumpers! I haven't seen these Dzires anywhere else!

And I am yet to see Amaze ruling the roads in Kolkata.

So, the overall Indian trend may not be reflected in certain regions. Do the manufacturers give region wise figures by any chance?

MODS / EXPERTS : IMO Tata has a good representation in many segments. But, honestly, why don't their sales improve? Looks are subjective, so apart from the design aspect I find it hard to see what exactly their cars lack. Their product/service quality being "bad" seems speculation that can't be the absolute basis of their low sales performance. What gives?

As far as I can see, part of it is definitely media management. Their ads aren't encouraging at all. Be it the new Safari Storme ad, or the Indigo eCS ad, or even the Sumo ad, I honestly haven't liked them or connected at any level. To the extent that I genuinely hope they simply played the old Safari ads all over again. They'd save the production expenses which they could've used to give more ads. I even tweeted them suggesting so. As opposed to that I felt the recent Fiat ad was good, encouraging people to "Make the move", the new Honda ad also seems brilliant.

But anyway, what apart from that do you think should Tata do to better show us how their cars are, compared to others cars? I put forth this question to this section because I've been given an opportunity to meet Mr.Karl Slym and I wish to pass on the message. Although I did create another ("Ideator") thread for that, I just want more inputs from various other parts of the forum.

So, the overall Indian trend may not be reflected in certain regions. Do the manufacturers give region wise figures by any chance?

All OEM's give out region-wise wholesale figures to SIAM. For East you can assume, (approx thumb-rule) around 8%-10% of the total all India monthly sales. Of course, this figure can go up or down depending on the popularity / reputation / fascination the buying public has for a particular model - but the figure usually averages out at 8-9% of all sales. Within this, Kolkata Metro + N&S 24Pgns account for 40-45% of the total 8-10% volumes that East chips in on an all India basis. East includes the States of WB, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and the Seven States of north east. Some manufacturers tend to club Chattisgarh to East as well.

The problem in East is that top variants sell much less compared to South & West, resulting in lower profitability per car sold.